Foreign Investors Net-Sell 12.44 Trillion Won in Korean Stocks from July 1–16, Shift to ETF Hedging

According to South Korea Exchange data, foreign investors net-sold 12.44 trillion won in Korean stocks from July 1–16, with 12.10 trillion won from the KOSPI market and 338.1 billion won from KOSDAQ. However, foreign investors simultaneously net-bought approximately 593.7 billion won in Korean ETFs, including both bullish KOSPI 200-tracking ETFs and bearish inverse ETFs, indicating a hedging strategy rather than outright bearishness.

Among individual stock leveraged ETFs, foreign investors showed divergent sentiment: they net-bought 22.7 billion won in Samsung Electronics single-stock leveraged ETFs while net-selling 122.1 billion won in SK Hynix-related leveraged ETFs during the same period.